My worst disaster: a greenhouse heater and alarm failure that came together on a 7°F night.

Literally everything in the greenhouse - a 20-year collection of orchids from around the world, many
of which were irreplaceable plants I had personally collected in South America and China - froze,
then turned into rotting mush when the sun came up and warmed the GH.

Associated sub-disaster: As everything was catalogued, I was able to put together a fairly complete
list of replacement values, as they were covered under my homeowners insurance. I called the
company and was immediately asked if it was vandalism. Being an honest guy, I answered "No, it was
a heater failure." The response. "We don't cover freezing. Thanks for your honesty. Goodbye."

Associated lesson: don't be honest with insurance companies..... A "Yes" and a quick door kick
would have resulted in the issuance of a fat check.

Associated positive: After buying a new heater and alarm system, I wrote them off on my income
taxes as a "business expense," not having the slightest idea how I'd make a business out of this. A
few months later that year, I had divisions of recently-acquired plants, posted a message right here
about their availability, had two "orders" within a few hours. Voila' - First Rays was born.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

.. . . . . . . . . . .
"J Fortuna" wrote in message
...
Just looked in the rgo archives and found this entertaining thread from 1999
with subject "Funny Stories"
http://www.google.com/groups?threadm... cca.home.com
Enjoy!

Having only been into orchids for 3 years my worst story is not as bad as
many of yours probably:

I got my first orchid (a classic white Phal) as a wedding present from my
father (on April 28th 2001 ... hmm, wedding anniversary coming up soon ...
another opportunity to get more orchids, yay :-) Anyway, just a couple of
weeks after getting this Phal, I was raising the blinds in the morning to
let in the sunlight for the plant, and the entire blinds came out of the
fixture and tumbling down onto the plant. The leaves were seriously scarred,
the spike was mangled, not a single blossom to save. My first reaction was
shock, my second reaction: I have to go buy another orchid just like it, so
that if my dad asks "How is the orchid?" I can say that "It's flowering
beautifully" without lying. At that point I had no clue about the scale of
this disaster, I actually thought that the plant might be in danger of not
surviving this occurrence -- foolish me! So I went out and bought my second
Phal which does indeed look very much like the first -- and right now both
of them are in gorgeous bloom. It's the second time that they are both
reblooming under my care, and one of them has had a keiki in the meantime as
well ... I believe it was the second one I got, but I can't really be sure,
since I keep having trouble telling them apart.

Joanna

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
...
Anyone care to share stories about worst orchid-related disasters and/or
best orchid-related miracles? Or any other entertaining orchid stories for
that matter?

Joanna (who is fighting a head-cold and procrastinating on taxes in damp
and
cold Washington DC area)